


Staying on a Jaffa's Good Side

by Aurora_Novarum



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: 1000-3000 words, Community: OnePrompt, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-02
Updated: 2009-12-02
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:34:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurora_Novarum/pseuds/Aurora_Novarum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Siler gets shanghaied into an emergency repair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Staying on a Jaffa's Good Side

**Author's Note:**

> In response to SG-1's lj one_prompt community prompt "Well? Can you fix it?"

Siler tried to fit his hands into the delicate circuitry, but found with the shadow hovering overhead, he couldn't tell what he was doing. He sighed at the shadowy culprit. "Sir, you're blocking my light."

"Oh, sorry." The Colonel shifted away from Siler's right side, only to pop up so close to Siler's left the Sergeant could smell commissary pizza sauce on O'Neill's breath. "Well?"

Siler breathed out through his nose, keeping his mouth tightly shut so as not to say something inappropriate to a superior officer.

"Well?" O'Neill repeated. Siler could sense the restless movement as the Colonel shifted back and forth on the balls of his feet. "Can you fix it?"

Siler found a dead connection. Feeling along the base, he could tell there was dried fluid as well. It didn't make sense to be oil, wrong texture. He brought his fingers to his nose and sniffed. "Sir, did you spill beer in here?"

That question had the double bonus of not only getting O'Neill to finally back away, but also putting him on the defensive. "It doesn't really matter what happened, does it? Just that it's back in working order again, ASAP."

Siler stared down into the mess before him. "Sir, I'm not sure how ASAP I can do this. I've got a lot of official work already on my plate. Plus...."

"This is official!" Colonel O'Neill protested. "It's government property...of a sort...it's stored on government property at least. And it's definitely of high priority."

Siler just raised his eyebrows at that remark, but O'Neill folded his arms in front of his chest and adopted his "colonel glare". Siler had been around too long for it to be fully effective on him. Still, he took a deep breath before continuing, "Plus, I'm not sure I even have the parts. This isn't standard..."

"What, you've got wires and bolts and probably even alien doodads that could weld this together just like that right?" O'Neill decided to emphasize his point by waving around some of the parts from the disassembled o-scope.

Siler couldn't grab anything out of the Colonel's hands, since his lap was already filled with the disassembled pieces from O'Neill's project. "Sir..."

"Oh, um, sorry." The Colonel must really want this repair done because he immediately put the objects down, even moving one to approximately where he thought he had picked it up from.

"You know, sir, it may even be easier just to replace..."

"Ach!" O'Neill waved his finger back and forth in a scolding manner.

"Sir?"

"It's not an option." O'Neill shook his head, and did he actually shudder? "Just, do the best you can."

Siler was surprised at the compliment, and the mercenary part of him started adding to the value of the Colonel's IOU. He bent back over the device, trying to figure out what was salvageable and what would definitely need replacing when yet another person entered. This time it was Dr. Daniel Jackson. Siler wondered when his workroom had become the latest SG-1 gathering place.

"Sergeant, have you seen Colo...Jack, I've been looking for you everywhere."

"And, you found me." Colonel O'Neill didn't look pleased at being found. He continued in a far too casual tone. "Anyone else searching?"

"Umm...no, not that I know of..." Dr. Jackson had obviously caught the undertone to the Colonel's comment as well. "Why? What's going...wait. Is that...?"

Jackson's eyes had tracked to the device Siler was still balancing in his lap and the cover sitting on the table. O'Neill cut him off. "Maybe."

Jackson picked up the cover sitting on the table. Between dealing with O'Neill's hovering and trying to take the cover off, Siler hadn't noticed the markings etched into the cover before.

"Does Teal'c know that..."

"No!" O'Neill grabbed the cover out of Jackson's hands and more surprisingly gently laid it on the counter. "And with Siler's help, he may never know."

Siler suddenly felt like the device on his lap was on fire. This was Teal'c's? After Dr. Jackson pointed them out, he could spot the Goa'uld symbols etched onto the side. Now he knew why Col. O'Neill was so frantic at getting this repair done right away. Siler glared at O'Neill. This IOU would be huge.

Even though Siler didn't speak, Jackson made up for it. "How the hell did you..."

"He left it at my place over the weekend, and well...he should've known better."

"That I can agree with." Dr. Jackson shot Siler a look of sympathy, and the Sergeant decided he was better off not knowing whether the sympathy was due to putting up with a frantic Colonel or the potential ramifications of being caught as a co-conspirator against Teal'c. Siler shifted a wire, intrigued by what he saw. Perhaps it was just a bad connector. If that was the case, then maybe the repair could be simple.

O'Neill seemed to take Siler's tinkering as a positive sign. "Oh, while you're at it, could you maybe adjust this part too?"

"Adjust it?" Siler looked at device O'Neill placed in his hand blankly.

"Yeah, just make it a bit more sensitive, or...something that..."

Jackson spoke up. "You're cheating!"

"What? No, it's not cheating, it's just a minor adjustment to the control. It's not even touching Teal'c's. He always uses that one." O'Neill pointed to the identical device still on the counter.

"It's cheating." Dr. Jackson replied.

"It is not."

"Is too."

"Is not."

Siler couldn't believe these two men were on one of the elite field teams. They sounded more like his two sons when they got into one of their inevitable fights.

"You're sabotaging Teal'c's..."

"I am handicapping to even the odds. Teal'c's eye-hand coordination is off the charts. You would never expect it the way Jaffa can't hit the broad side of a barn but..."

"Aren't you the highest sniper rating or something?"

"Marksman." Siler and O'Neill both corrected Jackson automatically.

"Right. Anyway, it sounds like cheating to me."

"Evening the odds." O'Neill answered piously. "Besides, if anyone's cheating, it's Teal'c. I swear every time I think I'm getting this one the way I like it, it stiffens up again."

Siler caught the dangerous smile that crossed Dr. Jackson's face. Couldn't these overgrown boys take this outside his workroom? "So, are you saying your reflexes are going? Maybe getting a little old?"

Siler winced. That was a low blow. "Hey!" O'Neill straightened. "Teal'c's twice my age."

"Oh, so we're back to just plain cheating on top of sabotage."

"Sabotage? It wasn't...it was an accident!" Just when Siler figured they'd forgotten he was even here, O'Neill turned to him. "Siler, can you fix it?"

Siler took a deep breath and looked pointedly at the Colonel. "I think I will get further faster if I'm not interrupted."

"See, Daniel, you're interrupting the man." O'Neill said.

Siler only stared at him.

"C'mon, Jack," Jackson led O'Neill by the arm out of the room. "Let's see what poison the commissary's got."

Relieved, Siler refrained from pointing out O'Neill had already had lunch. To his amusement, he noticed the Colonel didn't say a word either. Perhaps he'd finally taken the hint.

"Yeah, okay. Siler, you want something? I can bring something back. Pie? Cake?" Dr. Jackson pulled O'Neill through the door as he continued to call out desserts. "Jell-O?"

Siler breathed a sigh of relief that he finally had his workroom back to himself. He had an idea a surefire fix it, but it would involve leaving the base. He wasn't sure O'Neill--or Teal'c would be able to wait until he was off-duty.

"If I had known he was bringing it down here, I would've warned you sooner." Siler looked up at the new interruption. Major Carter was standing in the doorway holding a box.

"Major?"

She sealed the door behind her. "Colonel O'Neill. I suspected what happened the way he's been avoiding Teal'c all day. You know it's the third time he's broken it? I guess he took me seriously when I said I wasn't going to help him anymore. Sorry you got roped into it."

Siler nodded. He didn't blame Carter; he knew how dangerous it was getting in the middle of SG-1 shenanigans. He watched, impressed as she took the brand new game console out of the box and started unscrewing the cover. He disconnected the consoles from the old one, making sure to mark the one O'Neill had referenced as "Teal'c's" with some colored electrical tape. "You read my mind, ma'am."

Carter flashed a smile. "Great minds think alike. Although I admit, the first time, I really did try to fix it. This is...easier."

"What do I owe you?" Siler wondered how he'd repay her as he fit Teal'c's etched cover onto the new console and fit the screws snugly. Plus he wondered how much he could pass off to O'Neill as parts.

"Don't worry about it, Sergeant. I still owe you for finding those Indian parts on E-bay." Carter handed off Teal'c's controller to Siler to place in its proper place on the device. "Besides, watching the Colonel curse at using a new remote is payment enough."

"He hasn't caught onto that after three tries?"

"He hasn't caught onto the fact that Teal'c knows he's always breaking it either. At this point, I think Teal'c just accidentally leaves it over the weekend when he wants a newer model. He knows the Colonel tries to get in more practice, and his reputation for impatience when it comes to gadgets."

"I'm surprised the Colonel hasn't thought about doing this switchout for himself. I mean, replacing the cover isn't hard."

Carter frowned as if the possibility hadn't occurred to her before. "Maybe it's plausible deniability."

Or wanting to spread the blame in case something goes wrong. Siler wasn't sure how he felt about being this close to SG-1's intra-team blackmail. Then again, he still got a huge IOU from Colonel O'Neill out of the deal. Those could always come in handy. And if Carter wasn't using this as a total repayment for that motorcycle part, all in all, Siler figured he was coming out ahead of the game.

But just in case, Siler made a point to buy Teal'c a new video game. It never hurt to stay on a Jaffa's good side.

Fin.


End file.
